Month: March 2007

  • Suck it up ICANN

    LISBON (Reuters) – The U.S.-based Internet governing body rejected a
    proposal on Friday to create an adults-only zone on the internet, or a
    .XXX domain.


       

    Supporters of an .XXX domain argued it would make it easier to
    confine sex sites and filter them out. Opponents argued it would make
    pornography on the Internet easier to find.


       

    The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
    (ICANN), which manages the Internet’s domain-name address system,
    decided to reject the application for .XXX sites at a meeting in
    Portugal. Story

    Shame on ICANN. They had a simple way to keep pornography out of most people’s home and they decided not to.

    Why this was a great idea:

    • ICANN could easily mandate that domain registrars monitor the content of their registrants. There really aren’t that many domain registrars on the planet. And just forcing the top 3-4 would control 95% of the problem. Registrars who failed to comply could simply lose their status the way RegisterFly recently did.
    • Forcing all porn sites onto .xxx domain names would enable Internet Service Providers to allow customers the choice whether to allow porn into their homes or not. Literally, you could block .xxx domains completely from your house in the same way you can with cable TV. Even the most clever kid couldn’t disable a firewall and see something because it would be blocked at a level so far up the line that it would be virtually impossible.
    • This is the right thing to do. ICANN may have said no this time, but they will admit to it being an active debate. This simply means that people need to keep talking about it and it will change. Clearly, the European Union wants this to happen. Certainly in some parts of the globe pornography is big business to local economies… likewise it is funding the underworld in many areas like Russia and Southeast Asia.
    • Pornography should not be accessed accidentally. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten porn laden email, pop-ups, comment spam, and other snares that accidentally lead to me seeing something I shouldn’t. And I consider myself fairly web savvy. The fact that my kid can try to find Disney’s website and get to porn accidentally, or that she can find porn at all in my home is an outrage. ICANN is completely culpable and must act.

    What can I do? I think the only thing I can do is not let the story die. It’s a very simple solution to a growing epidemic. As JR Mahon said on YMX a few weeks ago, "We are literally growing a porn generation; a generation that think it’s cool to have porn stars inside of their brains." I don’t know about you… but I don’t want my kids growing up thinking it’s cool to have porn stars inside their brains.

  • KidsTown site coming along

    M_k_downtown1Yesterday I got a chance to finish the KidsTown website. It’s not that it wasn’t working properly or wasn’t updated… it was that some of the drop down menus weren’t working properly. So, everything is up and running there. This is a big relief as something is supposed to be in the next Romeo Observer about MainStreet.

  • Another disappointment for Stoney

    Black_squirrel
    First, Stoney has a complete inability to eat one of those mean black squirrels that reside about our backayard.  Now, Kristen didn’t take him jogging this morning. He just sat by the window and cried. I think his tears are him realizing that while he is getting into "squirrel eating shape"by going jogging every morning the squirrels are also losing their winter weight. See, missing one days workout could be the difference for fulfilling that dream and not.

  • Ideas

    This was on Seth Godin’s blog today and I thought it was poignant.

    Two Reasons People Say No to Your Ideas

    "It’s been done before"
    "It’s never been done before"

    Even though neither one is truthful, accurate or useful, you need to be prepared for both.

    It’s amazing to me that the more I say "yes" to ideas, even crazy ones… that God blesses me. What does that say about people who are careful?

  • What can I say? A brother can’t drive”

    That’s the liner from Eddie Griffin after he tore up a Ferrari. For parents with kids learning how to drive, this will make you say "It’s not that bad after all."

  • Sickly or what?

    It seems cold season is pretty late. Last night we had a record low attendance at Light Force. But we started listing all the kids who were sick… astounding.

    With spring finally showing its long shadows and warm weather, let’s hope this was just a fluke.

  • Leadership Summit

    I don’t know if I’m headed to this years summit. But I do think this is a great advertisement for it. I know what I’ve gotten out of the summit is two-fold.

    1. I get to listen to some of the great minds in leadership inside and outside of the church.
    2. I get to listen to the same stuff that church leaders will be talking about, writing about, and thinking about for the next year.

    Well done video, by the way.

    By the way. Go to the YouTube page for this… the first comment is very funny.

  • easter in Romeo update

    Today we have kind of kicked things up a notch. We have gotten our fliers for the Easter service in a number of businesses, the sign is getting looked at, and we’re now getting more involved with online advertising.

    Weird reactions
    Because this is a "different" form of marketing for churches in our area… we’ve gotten slammed by a couple of businesses. In particular, the local library not only said no, they said "your trying to trick people into going to church." Um, I don’t get that reaction at all. If someone is already looking for a church to attend on Easter Sunday, aren’t we just making it easy for them to find us and check us out?

    More reactions to come, I am sure.

  • Raising Lazarus taking shape

    Back a few weeks ago I posted a mini-manifesto as we created the Hurting Youth Workers Fund. (Hence the chip-in widget to the left) The last 2-3 weeks since then have been amazing. My friend, Patti Gibbons, has taken to the task of setting up a charitable organization to handle the fund raising and care for youth workers left for dead by their local churches.

    What is happening?
    Well, in the past two weeks Patti has written the by-laws and dug through hundreds of pages of paperwork to file with the State of New York and the federal government to get 501c3 status for the fund. This means gifts given are tax deductible and it also protects us from getting taxed personally for the funds given. (Phew!) She’s also in the process of assembling a board of directors, teams of people to offer help, places where hurting youth workers can go and rest free of charge, on and on.

    Anything for me to look at?
    Sure… check out the Raising Lazarus website. This isn’t anything fancy yet. But as Patti gets everything official you’ll see all the basic information about Raising Lazarus plus two incredible features.

    1. Stories from the hurting: I’ve had the honor of getting a few of these, they will shock you.
    2. Stories from the recovering: As we help the hurting, we’ll share their success stories.

    What about the church?
    I am very careful how we go about this since I would never intend to harm the church. (Not the local church I work at, they are great employers… I mean "the church" bigger than that.) At the same time, I think the church should be called to accountability, especially the ones who habitually harm their staff members. We’re not going to be out to attack the church in any way, but it’s our hope that a by-product of helping the hurting will be an attempt to educate and restore churches doing the damage.

    Are you for real?
    Yes, Raising Lazarus is for real. We realize this isn’t one of those top 10 crisis in the world today… but as people encounter the stories people will see why we felt like we needed to do something. If offering counseling, financial assistance, and a place to rest is all we can do… than we will do that.

  • The Power of Viral Marketing

    There are people who "don’t get" viral marketing, how it works, or it’s power. There are a lot of people trying to do it… and most people think it’s a waste… here’s a little piece CBS did on the power of viral marketing.